God’s Promises for the Church Together as One
Many of God’s promises to us are given to the Church together, collectively. They become effective for us individually only as we are living in love, as a functioning part of the Body of Christ.
The universal Church and local churches
Our Oneness in the Body of Christ and the Consequences of Ignoring It
What happens to you affects me. If we choose to work together, the Body of Christ is healthy and effective. If we choose not to recognize each other, we are still one, but the Body of Christ os diseased.
We Are Called to Live Out the Truth of Our Oneness
We are called to live out the unity of the Body of Christ. The Body is already one, but we have a role in making that oneness effective in the world.
Humans “Male and Female” and Marriage as Pictures of God’s Unity in Diversity
The creation of humans as male and female, marriage and reproduction are all a part of the image of God in human beings, and are all an intelligible picture of God’s unity in diversity. They also point to our unity iwith each other and God n the Church.
The Human Being as a Picture of God’s Complex Unity
Human beings are made in God’s image, a picture of his complex unity. Body and spirit must be united to form a soul. Each of the faculties of the soul and parts of the body together form a single, unified person.
Our Individual Oneness with Christ
Jesus called Himself the whole vine—which includes each of the branches—not just the root or the trunk of the vine. Thus, we are one with Him as the branch is one with the vine. We are each a part of Him, just as he is the life of each of us…. if we live in Christ and His words live in us, anything we ask will be done for us, because the Father is glorified when we bear fruit.
The Underlying Truth: The Church is One, Invisible Body – What is Missing is Visible Unity
All of our questions about the oneness of the Church, as a present reality, are answered if we truly recognize Christ as its Head… However, our choice for or against the truth does not affect the reality that Christ died to make us one with Himself and with each other. His work is done, and our oneness is a present, completed truth that should influence all of our conduct.
An old dream about dirges, Sunday school classes, and the expectation to hide problems
How a dream about the word “dirge” led me to recognize two of the major problems of modern Western churches: our insistence on hiding problems to preserve our “witness” rather than dealing with them in the Spirit (hypocrisy) and our one-way, “fact”-intensive teaching style.
Discipline or Correction, Emotions, End of the Churched Society, God Speaks to Us, Heresy, Historical Background, Human Rationality, Illness as a Consequence, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Purpose of the Church, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, The place of visions, Through others, Through the church, To live in unity